Returning the Smile You Have Had From the Start
by Monkey Ruler
Summary: Even when Rogue was trying and failing to get drunk off of root beer, she still enjoyed making the tough rock tumbler turn a healthy shade of dark red.


Music blasted in the background, old sad love songs she'd never admit to listening to outside of her safe haven.

This was the fifth time she's been in the Brotherhood in a month, drowning her troubles in root beer. They didn't have any real alcohol, unfortunately. Lance had drunk their whole supply when Kitty had dumped him and they were too lazy to buy more. 

It was strange, she thought as she looked at her drink, hoping it would magically turn into a Jack Daniels. When she first betrayed the Brotherhood and joined the X-Men because of her _mother_, she avoided this house like the plague, afraid everyone hated her. Now, she was here more often than she was in her own room. Funny, huh?

She had seen Jean and Scott. Again. A happy, loving, caring couple. And she hated everything about it. She leaned more into Lance's chest, taking another swig of her soda. He was like a brother to her, even though she already had one.

Her brother. Kurt Wagner. Fuzzy, sharp teeth, _blue_, heard of him? She knew he was trying, and she wanted to try too, but she just couldn't open up to him. She knew he was family, that the whole mansion was supposed to be like her family, but she couldn't help but think that Mystique was, too, and she threw her off a cliff. She loved Kurt, she really did, but she missed Saturday mornings sitting in front of the tv eating cereal with the rest of the Brotherhood, watching cartoons instead of the news. Food fights that didn't end up with burnt clothing and frozen spaghetti stuck in your hair.

Back to the original problem. Jean and Scott. Scott and Jean. Why not Scott and Rogue? She scoffed out loud. Jean, was the image of perfection. She was tall, curvy, straight red hair, sparkling green eyes, perfect grades, perfect personality. Hell, even perfect powers. She was just the lonely Gothic with a bad attitude and the power to suck the life out of people.

"Rogue, any guy would be crazy not to have you." Lance said, reading her mind. She snorted and looked into his caring brown eyes. She looked away quickly, unable to stand the raw emotion when she was in her depressed state.

"They'd be crazy to _have _me. Who would want a girl they can't touch? No holdin' hands, no hugs, no kisses..." She trailed off sadly.

"Relationships aren't all about touch." He said comfortingly.

"But it's mostly about it, sugah. Sure, a sweet and carin' man can get with me, clamin' that he doesn't care about whether or not Ah can make out with him, but sooner or later he'll get tired of just talkin', of all the layers in between us, and he'll move on."

"If that's what's going to happen then the guy you get with doesn't deserve it. You'll never hear me say this, ever, _ever_ again, but if you're in love then screw touching. Love isn't something you can touch, so why does it need to involve touching? Just being with them should be enough."

"You're sweet when you ditch that manly prahde, Lance. Who knew the toughest guy in Bayville High was a softy?" He chuckled and she emptied her root beer, "Uh(of) course, yah sure weren't the toughest guy when yah were at the X-Mansion. Trippin' over Pryde _and _throwin' up in the X-Jet?" He looked mortified and she smirked, "Yeah, Kitty told meh about how yah ruined that perfectly good seat."

His face turned a deep red and Rogue felt proud in knowing that she had made the big Brotherhood badass blush.

"I'm not used to air travel, okay?"

"Fo' feah of their interior design, Ah don' think the mansion would let yah get used to it anytime soon."

"Listen, I did a lot of stupid things when I was with Pryde." It was a well known fact that he no longer felt warm and fuzzy towards the kitten anymore.

"Everybody knows that, _Kit Cat_."

"Here I am trying to comfort you, and you're making fun of me?" He threw his arms up in the air and sighed loudly.

"Sorry, sugah." Rogue grinned at the annoyed mutant, "Can't help mahself."

"Must be my sparkling personality."

"If Ah didn't know any bettah, sugah, Ah would say you stole that Pietro pity line he always uses for compliments."

"Guess I've been spending too much time with him." He sighed again, once again wrapping his arms around the gothic mutant, "But he's one of the few in this house that I can stand sometimes. Not like when _you_ were around."

She got the not-so-subtle hint and groaned.

"Lance, the Institute is mah home."

"So was the Brotherhood!"

"Baldy said he would help me-"

"Get control of your powers so you can finally touch a human being? Rogue, it's been how long? You're better off with us."

"This place isn't exactly suitable for livin' conditions."

"Please, you're sounding like Red. You've been in worse." He said, referring to a situation only the Brotherhood would know about.

"Ah was drunk!"

"Tsk tsk, Roguey,"

"Don't call me that!"

"I recall a certain time when you enjoyed me calling you Roguey. You even had names for us too."

"Ah was wasted!"

"And having a snowball fight in a dump site. What would the X-Geeks say if they knew you enjoyed getting wasted with the rest of us? X-Geeks are supposed to be saints."

"Ah'm not a saint."

"Another reason you should move back. You're not like them, you belong with your fellow rule breakers."

"Please, ya'll are worse than Ah evah was, sugah."

"How many people at the institute did you call sugar?"

Rogue sighed and buried her face in his shoulder.

"Yo' not gonna give up, are you?"

"Never." She looked into his eyes and bit her quivering bottom lip.

"Why do ya always have to have these carin' moments?"

"Rogue, you were family. You still are. We're not complete without you." She hated the mushy side of Lance. It always made her feel special. And for some demented reason, she didn't like that, "We still have the fat muscle man, the arrogant jackass, the hopeless one, and the tough cool leader." Obviously he thought he was the tough and cool leader, "We need our snappy Goth back. We have a homicidal amnesiac who enjoys throwing around the jackass and the hopeless one, but not you. You know when to put us into our place and when to go along with us in our schemes. I mean, wouldn't it be good to get over the 'one girl in the house at a time' curse? Especially if it means having you back."

She gave him a half-smile and blushed slightly.

"Plus, Wanda can't cook at all."

"Ah did miss the Brotherhood home fo' awhile." She said eventually, looking around the house, "The only thing that's different is the amount of Toad holes in the walls."

Usually that only happened when Toad was unable to get away from an angry Blob or Avalanche. And Blob was, surprisingly, a human teddy bear. Even though he did have his, _slight anger_, difficulty.

"Gawd, how come yah're always able tah talk me intah things?"

"Because, Roguey," She elbowed him slightly, "I get you. Not like an old bald cripple forcing you to wear form fitting spandex uniforms."

Rogue giggled, acting completely out of her supposed character, and wondered if Lance added some alcohol into their root beer supply just for her.

"Rogue, are you happy there?"

She looked down at her empty bottle and sighed.

"Rogue." He said, tilting her head to look into his eyes.

"Fahne, ya win Rocky." She smirked at her old name for him and he grinned. Rogue looked around the boarding house falling apart around her, "Ah guess Ah could get used tah this waste sahght again."

"Great." He kissed her on the cheek, barely touching her skin at all, and turned a slight shade of pink.

She always did enjoy making him blush.

Author's Note: It's not really "romance" but it sort of is, right? Maybe? Don't hurt me because I'm trying to get into the inner mind of the Brotherhood.


End file.
